A refrigerator is an appliance for use in storing food at a low temperature and may be configured to store food (or other items) in a frozen state or a refrigerated state. The inside of the refrigerator is cooled by circulating cold air that can be continuously generated through a heat exchange process by using a refrigerant. During operation, the refrigerant goes through repetitive cycles of compression, condensation, expansion and evaporation. The cold air supplied into the refrigerator is uniformly distributed by convection. Accordingly, the items placed in the refrigerator can be stored at a desired low temperature.
A main body of the refrigerator may have a rectangular parallel-piped shape with an open front surface. Typically, the main body encloses a refrigeration compartment and freezer, each with its own door. The refrigerator may include a plurality of drawers, shelves, vegetable compartments and the like for sorting and storing different types of items.
Conventionally, top mount type refrigerators were popular, with a freezer positioned at the upper side and a refrigeration compartment positioned at a lower side. Recently, the bottom freezer type refrigerators have been developed, where a freezer is located at the lower side and a refrigeration compartment is located at the top. Because typically users access the refrigeration compartment more often than the freezer, a bottom freezer type refrigerator allows a user to conveniently access the refrigeration compartment that is located at the upper portion of the refrigerator. Unfortunately, on the other hand, it can inconvenient for a user to access the freezer if a user often needs to lower or bend down to access the freezer, e.g., for taking ice out of the freezer.
Therefore, some bottom-freeze-type refrigerators are equipped with a dispenser for dispensing ice, e.g., ice cubes or crushed ice. The dispenser is typically located in a refrigeration compartment door. Accordingly, the ice-making device for producing ice may be installed in the refrigeration compartment door or the interior of the refrigeration compartment.
The ice-making device may include an ice tray configured to produce ice pieces and an ice storage part configured to store ice produced in the ice tray.
An ice tray according to the related art has a plurality of ice cells for containing water. Water is supplied to the ice cells through a water supply port. Water may be cooled in a cooling space in the ice-making device and become frozen, thereby turning into ice pieces.
The ice pieces produced in the ice cells of the ice tray may be discharged to the outside of the ice tray as an ice-releasing member is activated, e.g., rotated by a drive device such as a motor or the like.
A shaft is used to rotate the ice-releasing member. The location of the shaft generally constrains the location of the water supply port. The location of the water supply port is constrained to a position shifted at one side from a centerline of the ice tray. This poses a problem that water discharged from the water supply port is not concentrated but tends to stray toward a sidewall close to the water supply port, leading to poor water supply.